Andrew playing soccer

Yesterday Andrew started playing soccer at Vetta indoor soccer. He was wanting to play so bad since Adriana has started playing. He was doing really well witht he dribbling and even listening to what his teacher had to say. It was really neat because he had his friend Grant on his team and another friend of ours, Jackson, was playing on the other team. Andrew had a great time and can't wait to go back next week. Here are a couple of pictures of him playing. They aren't the greatest because I forgot my good camera :( Andrew and Grant running together.

Half marathon run!

Today I ran my first half marathon run for the Lewis and Clark run in St. Charles. I'm not sure of my exact time yet but I think it was somewhere around 2:30 (not bad for a first time run). The weather was perfect and it was a great run. I think they said they had record attendance for this race and it was really crowded.
Here are a couple of pictures after the race. Here I am full of sweat and about to fall over ;pHere is an upclose picture of my first medal. My kids think I won the race because I got the medal ;pI'm planning on doing the St. Louis half marathon race in April where I will get a second medal plus a third medal for completing these two races. I'm so excited to have done this and I can't wait for the next one.

Update on the guinea pig babies!

Here are some updated pictures of the babies. They are now two days old and growing fast. I think they are all girls and will make sure again later.
Here is the gray and white baby. The next two are the black and white ones. They look very much alike so its really hard to tell them apart. But here is a couple of pictures of them.The are doing wonderful and eating on their own and playing like crazy. They are do darn cute to watch!

Kindergarten welcome mass

To help the kindergartens get used to going to Mass and understanding what they are to do, they are each assigned a 7th grader buddy that they attend mass with their kindergarten year. Adriana's buddy is named Kaitlyn and Adriana really likes her.
On Friday, the Church had a welcome Mass for all the kindergarteners to welcome them into the Church and it also gives me an opportunity to meet Kaitlyn.
I can tell this was my first child because I had to hold tears back as I'm watching my BIG girl standing in front of the Church!
Here is a few pictures: This is Adriana and her buddy, Kaitlyn.

Adriana and her Priest, Father John.After Church they had a reception with doughnuts and milk. We had a great time and I really hate watching my baby girl grow up so fast!

Andrew's 1st day of preschool!

On Tuesday Andrew had his first day of Preschool! He was going to sissy's old school so he was super excited, especially after we spent the last two years fighting to get him to come home with me after we would drop her off. So it is his first year at Curiosity Corner and he has the same teachers too, Mrs. Weber and Mrs. Zerbolio.
So here are a few pictures of his first day. If you are wondering what he is holding, it is a picture of him and daddy fishing. He has an obsession with carrying around this picture (the boy does love fishing with daddy!) Here he is with his super hero backpack.A picture in front of his new school.Here he is at circle time waiting for class to begin.He had a great first week and can't wait to go back. Although when the teacher stops you the first week, you know its never a good sign. She informed me that Andrew has a hard time sitting at circle time and he is really funny! Great, another year of being the class clown. Hopefully this year will be better and we can get this out of his system before Kindergarten! Well at least he isn't a class bully and would just rather make everyone laugh!!!!

Lily's babies!

Adriana's guinea pig, Lily, finally had her babies. We have been waiting and waiting for them to get here. I just checked on her this morning then went off to the store and came back and they were already born. They are big babies too for all being in her belly. So here is a picture of the fresh babies, all alive and breathing. I will get some more pictures when she cleans them up and hoping someone will want to adopt one or three of them ;)

Apple, peach, and blackberry picking

On Saturday we took the kids to Eckerts to go apple, peach, and blackberry picking. It was a great day considering we almost had to cancel because it was supposed to rain all day.
Our first trip was the apple picking. Here is the kids on the wagon ready to go.

Andrew trying out one of the apples to make sure they were good.
Joey taking a break from eating his apple to pick one.

Next we headed out to do some peach picking. Since it was close to the end of peach season there wasn't a lot to choose from.

Adriana walking the rows to find the perfect tree to pick from.

Joey, of course, doing more eating than picking (They should probably weigh him when we come in and again when we come out to see how much he actually eats!)
Most of the good peaches were up high on the trees, so the girls came up with their own plan to pick them.Finally we came to blackberry picking. And just a side note that blackberries do stain very bad!!!!
Adriana picking some blackberries.Adriana running up the aisle as it started to sprinkle on us.Andrew also heading out before the rain.And, of course, Joey eating some blackberries. There really isn't much this boy doesn't eat!This is my very favorite picture of Andrew while blackberry picking.

And the five kids showing off their loot of goods!And we can't forget the picture with the pumpkinator!

Thank you for another great time Eckerts! We can't wait to come back again next year!

Camping at Pere Marquette

This weekend we went camping at Pere Marquette State Park with my niece, nephew, mom and dad. We had a great time! We were a little worried at first because they were calling for rain all weekend but we got really lucky and only got rain on Sat. for a little while. We still managed to fit in a lot of fun things. Saturday we didn't do much because of the rain but we did make it into town and ate at a fun restaurant where we got to sit outside and listen to a band. The kids had a blast singing and dancing with the band. Too bad I forgot my camera for that ;(
Sunday we went to Eckerts for the day and went peach, apple, and blackberry picking. I have tons of pictures from there so I will be making that into a separate post. Then we visited some boats that were remakes of the Christopher Columbus boats. Very interesting to see. You could pay to go onto the boats but the line was ridiculously long and it was $9 a person so we decided to just look at them from the outside. Here is a couple of pictures of the boats. The rest of the weekend we spent around the campground having lots of fun together. We roller skated, went out on bikes, played all kinds of sport games (soccer, kickball, batmitten......etc.). It was so nice to have such a family fun filled weekend. I don't get to spend much time with my niece and nephew since school started back up so we enjoyed it along with the kiddos. Here is a few pictures of the fun weekend.
The kids making up their own version of batmitten or some kind of game.

Joey taking a break on the soccer ball.
The crazy trio! Adriana was behind Kaitlyn then hit her tire which left a nasty looking mark. Of course Adriana just laughed about it and went on. She did get smart and traded places with Jacob.We made a campfire every night and pigged out on s'mores!Adriana and Jake roller blading.

And finally Andrew roller skating in Adriana's old skates which he insisted we paint to look like spider man skates. We will get there soon buddy!

I always hate when the weekends come to an end and we have to come back home ;( Can't wait for our next little vacation!

Adriana's school pictures

I guess I just assumed that since you wore a uniform to school you got your school picture taken. I didn't realize until the night before Adriana's school pictures that she didn't wear a uniform. So the panic set in of trying to find something for her to wear. I was assuming that she couldn't wear a dress to school so I made her wear pants, much to her disliking. Then came the stress of trying to figure out what color background to choose and which pose to pick. I know no matter which one I pick I'm going to hear....."but mommy so and so used this one" Oh well. Well when we got to school I looked at what the other kids were wearing and go figure.....every girl was wearing a dress. Boy did I hear about it! Well I guess I will know for next year!
Here is a preview of what she looked like the morning of her pictures:

When I picked her up after school I asked her how her pictures went and she said "well they brushed my hair, but they wouldn't curl it for me". I hate to break it to my little diva but school pictures don't have a hairstylist with them! I wish I could have been there to hear that conversation :)

The boys!

So I feel like I've been neglecting my boys lately with all the posts there has been about Adriana so here is one for the boys! Chris gave Andrew one of his camouflage hats which Andrew insists means that he can start hunting now, mommy has other plans for him though! So here he is with his silly face wearing his hunting hat. Here is Joey trying on Andrew's hat.

Here is the boys trying on their hats together.
Can you tell these two are brothers!These two have become best buds since Adriana started school and it is so cute watching them play together. I know they will grow up to be best friends!